Earrings and a ponytail.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

Having lived in a mid-market midwestern city (Des Moines) and a similarly sized military city (Colorado Springs), I can say definitively that the military city is more conservative than the midwestern city. In fact, I would be hard pressed to think of a midwest city of more than a quarter million that would be considered "conservative" by any measure (cultural, social, or political).

And while I've certainly met my share of liberal military members, the correlation between military service and conservative politics is quite strong.

I cannot speak for Colorado Springs or the make up of most of Iowa. But I can tell you that in Illinois, there are little towns that are very homogeneous and are small farm towns and these are not very diverse areas. And if you use voting and politics as a guide, these places are very conservative in their values and in the way they vote and the policies they support. Not to suggest that anyone in those communities are all the same, but when Obama was running for the Senate (he was from a Chicago district in the Illinois legislature) he had to convince people that have never voted Democrat to vote for him. And I am not talking about military bases or membership being the main base of these communities. I also know many military people that are not are racial minorities are not politically conservative, at least in the way they claim to vote or look at issues of public policy. Military service is not the overriding factor for all those that are members. Serving in the military might be a factor, but it is certainly not the factor to how conservative they might be.

Peace